Qin Benli

Qin Benli (Chinese: 钦本立; August 13, 1918 – April 16, 1991) was a well-known Chinese journalist, newspaper editor, commentator, and founder of the World Economic Herald newspaper. Benli grew up as the eldest of four children (two sisters and one brother). He completed his elementary school studies in Huzhou, Zhejiang Province, and at the age of 18, he enrolled in the prestigious Hangzhou High School. He was ejected from this school because of his political activities. He was expelled again from his next high school for the same reason. Again at Chaoyang University, Qin was expelled for his political activities in his third year of undergraduate studies. The consistent political behavior that booted him from those three schools was his organization of patriotic and pro-democracy protests. Benli got his start as a newspaperman in 1944, working at a string of newspapers in Chongqing and elsewhere in China, before moving to Shanghai to continue that vocation. Benli is best known for his founding and editorship of the World Economic Herald based in Shanghai. The publication was closed down during the Tiananmen Square demonstrations of 1989. After the newspaper challenged the Communist Party leadership with its reportage on the protests, Qin, called a "legendary" newspaper editor for his work, was dismissed by Shanghai Communist Party secretary Jiang Zemin, and then put under house arrest.